As adult learners or students, we’re all looking for new fruitful activities that we can share with our friends and family. In this hands-on workshop, we’re partnering with Google Developer Group of Central Florida to learn how you can build 3D stuff for a 3D printer, a Unity game, and Minecraft!
WHO: Families, developers, tinkerers
WHERE: Online Google Meet
WHEN: June 20th at 1pm
In this workshop, we’ll build amazing stuff in Minecraft that will WOW your friends! You’ll learn the basics of 3D modeling using TinkerCAD, a free tool for modeling! You’ll have fun constructing 3D worlds and playing them in Minecraft. Using TinkerCAD, we’ll convert your 3D worlds into Minecraft schematics that can be imported using WorldEdit.
For families, we hope that you consider bringing your kids with you and learning together.
For developers, we’ll cover a few API’s to build 3D models using JavaScript too.
You’ll need to register for a free account on TinkerCad. You’ll also need to obtain the Minecraft Java Edition. You may want to install WorldEdit ahead of time too: Setup WorldEdit on Minecraft
Hello. In this post, I wanted to share a word of thanks to all teachers and professors. Over the years of being married to a college professor and writing this blog, I continue to grow in respect and appreciation for all teachers. The world has become a hard place. The average student does not just battle with facts, figures, and learning. For many students, they battle with challenges in home life, challenging work situations, and divided attention. Before COVID19, my wife Sarah worked crazy hard to create the best situation possible for her students to thrive. I can see her agonizing over lecture details to make things correct and clear. At times, grading isn’t fun. Work flows into the nights and weekends.
As we enter this epic event of COVID19 and social distancing, I can only imagine the ways that teachers like you have needed to adapt and change to continue to help students become the best version of themselves. Again, I wanted to say thank you!! As a parent of three little ones, it has been a gift to see you adapting to the challenges of teaching online and authentically helping my kids to grow.
Given we’re all huddled up in the same house, Sarah and I have had the opportunity to observe lots of teaching and learning in action. I have enjoyed seeing my kids teachers create open conversation space to help the kids process and talk about their feelings of not attending school in person. We’re social creatures. And my kids miss playing and learning with their friends. The video conferencing helps our kids feel a sense of connection. I have enjoyed seeing the apps, games and “edtech” innovations used to make math, reading, and science fun and engaging. For my older son, I have enjoyed seeing him research his science project and practice new skills of presenting online for the first time. I think my sons have become excited with the idea of having their own YouTube channel some day.
My wife and I have appreciated the way our students have received their schedule and assignments. In some cases, it’s been really nice to have all work due on Sunday at the end of the week. We really like the way our teachers have broken up the scope of work for the week into daily achievable tasks. As Sarah and I try to accomplish our professional work concurrently with running a home classroom, this attention to detail is greatly helpful. We recognize that planning and executing these lessons online is not easy. And again we say thank you.
Sarah and I have often wondered what it would be like to “home school” our kids. Across the nation, many families and teachers have adapted to making our homes into places of learning. If there’s a “bright side” to COVID19, I appreciate the precious opportunity to see my kids learn and grow. I appreciate all your efforts to keep authentically human connections to our students. We recognize that teaching online is more time intensive. Speaking as a parent, please know that we recognize your efforts and thank you.
Looking for a playful way to connect your remote teams and family? In this time of social distancing, it’s becoming more important to find fun ways to create shared experiences virtually. Mozilla Hubs enables your team to host VR/gameful meeting experiences complete with audio communication. For communities or families that have VR headsets, Mozilla Hubs works with Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus, and Vive. For developers, check out the links to help you instantiate your own Mozilla Hubs server.
Hey, Music makers! In the past few months, my family and I have discovered an amazing web-based music recording tool that we just had to share. I believe that some of the best ideas in life come from ideas mixing. In the world of music making, we love having the opportunity to elaborate or jam upon the ideas of other musicians. It’s a core experience. The website BandLab.com makes it possible for music makers to build music in a fun and social manner.
I had the amazing opportunity as a kid to learn musicianship deeply. From my mother, I learned a great deal of discipline and habits required to become a proficient violin player. I learned to appreciate classical music and the joy of making music with others. These lessons also empowered me to serve in my church and use my gift of music to uplift others. My father, gifted me with the perspective and skills of a rock keyboard player. My brother and I grew up listening to a lot of classic rock with Elton John, Billy Joel, Eagles, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Chicago, etc. While I loved classical music, I also desired to play like an Elton John. Being computer geeks, my dad invested very early in getting us access to MIDI music recording equipment and a simple keyboard. As a teen, I can remember losing many hours during the summer learning how to record electronic music. We even recorded some of my dad’s songs too. These are some of my most precious memories.
With this story in mind, I want to create these experiences for my kids too. It’s been fun to explore BandLab.com with my kids and explore their musical creativity together. For my little singer, we record some Disney tracks. One of my boys really enjoys building techno right now. And BandLab.com makes it easy. I hope you consider checking out BandLab.com to explore music making in your family too!
It just works in the browser: BandLab.com is like Google Docs for musicians. To get started, you don’t need to install software onto your computer at all. Open up a web browser and navigate to BandLab.com and register for an account. From there, you hit the “create” button and you’re ready to start making music.
It works with your MIDI/audio controller: In our house, we have a pretty inexpensive MIDI/audio recording box. It’s a USB device that connects my laptop to my MIDI keyboard and our recording mics. It blows my mind that Google Chrome and BandLab.com can interface with audio recording and MIDI devices. Putting geek stuff aside, I can use BandLab.com to record small keyboard and audio fragments completely in the browser. Crazy!!
For R&B and techno oriented creatives, BandLab.com has a robust library of audio loops for mixing. All of these loops can be layered and arranged in a multi-track manner.
The best ideas come from mixing with other musical ideas. With BandLab.com, you can now share your music in the same manner that you would share a Facebook post or a Google document. This creates an opportunity for creators to market their skills, connect with new musical friends, and gain inspirations from others.
A great deal of band lab works on mobile devices and phones too. This can be fun if you’re feeling creative on the go!
Quick tour of features
BandLab.com provides an user experience to support multi-track recording. For creatives who want to leverage basic software-based synths in their MIDI creations, you can expect the common piano roll interface. I have to say that I enjoy the simplicity as compared to other recording tools. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to output my MIDI back to my external keyboard device. This matters for professional musician use cases where you have an amazing library of sounds on your keyboard. I do like that the multi-track experience enables you to mix different types of musical ideas: MIDI keyboard recordings, raw audio, drum loops, and audio loops.
The Drum patterns interface enables you to define a collection of drum patterns. For the pattern A, you might define a drum pattern that works for a verse. For pattern B, you might define another drum pattern for your chorus. You can define another pattern that you might use on a bridge. As I’m trying to engage my kids in music making, I like to share the drum pattern maker with them. They instantly get it and enjoy iterating on ideas.
Are you curious about BandLab.com, but don’t have a keyboard? Don’t worry! They have you covered. They have a simple interface for playing notes using your normal computer keyboard. For simple techno recording, you can still have fun with this interface.
To give you more perspective, check out this YouTube video from Eumonik. I like his honest review and tour of BandLab.com.
Hope you enjoy BandLab to create async-JAM sessions with your music friends and family.
Like many parents, my wife and I seek out activities that have a fun factor while we learn small lessons about math, science, art, or crafting. It’s fun to find activities that help avoid the default desire for screen time. I started putting together a plan for our kids over the next few weeks. Like many makers, I enjoy checking out new projects ideas on Instructables.com. If you haven’t checked out Instructables, I am certain that you can find a project for you there! I thought I’d share seven projects that looked cool.
In our house, the kids really enjoy building forts. I really like the idea of using PVC to frame the structure of the fort. It looks like a pretty cheap build. Honestly, building forts with cardboard works just fine too. Big box forts can keep our kids playing for hours!
Lego Crossbow:
Sometimes, kids enjoy being little warriors. This looked like a fun build for fans of Lego technics. The build reminds me of the activities from the book “Weapons of Mini-Destruction.”
Lego chess:
In general, I think we might start exploring the idea of building board games using Legos. I got this concept after seeing this simple chess set. It has been fun starting to teach chess to the kids too.
DIY Cardboard Lamp:
This just looks very cool. It might be fun to do a 3D printing twist on twist on this project too!
DIY Board Game:
Speaking of board games again, I really appreciated this post on building board games that teach. Besides that, the author had very practical tips to prototype board game layouts with common objects and simple computer tools like power point. Thanks YourClassRoomHelper.com for the awesome ideas.
Duct Tape Bird House:
With the family staying in the house more, we have started enjoying bird watching more. This hack with boxes and Duct tape got the attention of one of my little ones.
Happy New Year! I hope you had a Merry Christmas! Santa Claus very kindly brought me a new toy so that I can explore the world of augmented reality in the world of iOS. Over the years, I have enjoyed connecting makers, students, and educators to my favorite 3D modeling tool: TinkerCad.com. From the start, TinkerCad focuses on easy usability for early-stage makers and students. AutoDesk has just released an iPad edition of TinkerCad. I especially appreciate that you can now preview your work using augmented reality. It works really well with Apple’s ARKit technology.
If you’re comfortable with the existing TinkerCad experience, you’ll feel right at home using the IPad app version. My gut says that this iOS app re-uses the existing browser-based screens. I personally will continue to leverage a PC to produce content. I do believe the touch interfaces for the IPad work fine, but I feel more productive using a mouse and keyboard. I did share the TinkerCad app with a five-year-old to see if they could produce any content. I would say that the student did pretty well. You can see a few screens below.
Do you want to build a snow man?
From the start, TinkerCad has offered a variety of interesting formats for exploring work. You can export 3D models to paid 3D printing services. This is helpful for people who don’t own a 3D printer. You can export your 3D content to standard 3D modeling formats for printing or 3D game design. You can even export your designs to Minecraft and Legos. The AR viewer experience works very simply. At the top of the design window, the user selects the “AR viewer” button. The app switches to a camera view where the user can place their 3D content on a table or floor. The user can navigate their view around the 3D model by simply moving around. The app also enables the user to translate, scale and rotate the object as needed. I also like that you can take pictures of your work to share with friends!
From a few quick experiments, it looks like the software tries to keep the relative scale of the object as defined in TinkerCad. Given Autodesk created the software, I expected that AR content would match the scale of the model 1 to 1. To test this assumption, I created a unit cube of 1x1x1 meter. When I measured the 3D model using a ruler, the output was not exactly a meter. For most users, this isn’t a big deal. TinkerCad focuses on creating small objects. (not room-scale furniture) It’s just something to keep in mind.
Unfortunately, the TinkerCad IPad app needs an active Internet connection too.
All in all. I’m excited about the IPad format of TinkerCad and the AR feature. Hope you find it useful too!
In the past, the world of 3D modeling belonged to engineers and designers. Most 3D modeling software was hard to use and expensive. The folks at TinkerCAD.com have created a delightful web based tool for artists, students, and creative technology professionals . With this tool, you can start learning the basics of 3D modeling and print your creations using a personal 3D printer or a 3D printing service like Shapeways.com .
In our local maker community, I have started to receive requests for classes/tutorials on getting started with 3D printing and 3D modeling. I have collected three helpful and brief tutorials to help you get started with TinkerCAD.com . As I was reviewing this tool, I found the user experience and education materials very engaging and simple.
Benefits of TinkerCad.com:
TinkerCAD is free. In order to use the tool, you need to use a WebGL enabled browser like Google Chrome or FireFox.
TinkerCAD has a feature to enable you to export your 3D models to Minecraft. I haven’t tested this yet. I, however, am looking forward to playing with this.
If you don’t have a 3D printer, you will appreciate that TinkerCAD integrates with services like Shapeways.com and Thingaverse.com enabling you to 3D print and promote your work.
TinkerCAD has created a cool community of model builders and public models. I was able to quickly find a Dr. Who “Tardis” and modify the model. (see picture above.) The community feature enables you to learn how to construct complicated models by reviewing work from others.
TinkerCad is one solid option for getting started in 3D modeling. If you’re looking for other options, check out this link from http://www.InventToLearn.com .
I hope you find these video tutorials helpful.
Abstract: This is a tutorial video that teaches you the basic functions of Tinkercad, a 3D design tool that runs in your browser.
Abstract: This is a tutorial video of how to import vectors into Tinkercad. Import .svg files to turn your 2D designs into 3D. Bring files from vector programs like Illustrator, Inkscape, etc.
Abstract:Teacher Liz Arum gives a demo of Tinkercad, a new browser-based 3D modeling environment. We then talk to her about some of the basics of 3D modeling. This is an archived clip from Make: Live, which was originally broadcasted on 9/28/11. Go to http://makezine.com/?live/? for information about the show, chat.
Please note that this last video is a few years old. I, however, wanted to include it since Liz Arum provides an important educational perspective to the TinkerCAD tool. Liz uses this tool to teach physical fabrication and computing to her middle schoolers. (Very cool!) Since this video was created, the TinkerCAD user interface and features have been improved.
If you end up making something cool in TinkerCAD, share a link to your creations below!!
In this blog post series, I want to unpack building a 2D shooter game using Phaser3.js. Phaser3 provides a robust and fast game framework for early-stage JavaScript developers. In this tutorial, we will work to add aliens to the scene, give them some basic movement, and blowing them up. Sound like a plan? Here’s what we will build.
Please make sure to check out Tutorial 1 to get started with this project. You’ll need to build upon the code and ideas from the previous blog posts. (post 1, post 2)
To see the code in a completed state, feel free to visit this link. Let’s start by making some modifications to the scene class to preload an enemy sprite graphic. The PNG file will represent how the alien should be drawn to screen. We associate the name ‘enemy1’ with our PNG file.
In the Phaser game framework, we associate moving game entities with sprites. To define a sprite, we build out an enemy class. When we put a sprite into our scene(as the class is constructed), a special function will be called the constructor. We’ve designed the constructor so that we can set the enemy location at a point (x,y) coordinate and connect it to the scene.
In the constructor, we accomplish the following work. We set the texture of the sprite to ‘enemy1’ and set it the position. Next, we connect this sprite to the physics engine of the scene. We’ll use the physics engine to detect when the enemy gets hit by lasers. We also initialize the deltaX factor to 3. It’s not super exciting, but the aliens will shiver from side to side randomly. This, however, is good enough for a simple lesson. After to complete this tutorial, I encourage you to go crazy with making the aliens move any way you want!
So, we’re ready to start moving some aliens. Let’s do this! We’re going to write three simple methods on the Enemy1 class. Following the pattern of all Photon sprites, the update method will be called every game tick. It’s your job to tell the sprite how to move. Keep in mind, we’re going to do a simple “side to side” behavior randomly. In the update method, we start by picking a number between 0 and 3. If k is 2, we make the sprite move left using the “this.moveLeft()” function. Otherwise, we make it move to the right using “this.moveRight()”
update() {
let k = Math.random() * 4;
k = Math.round(k);
if (k == 2) {
this.moveLeft();
}
else if (k == 3) {
this.moveRight();
}
}
moveLeft() {
if (this.x > 0) {
this.x -= this.deltaX;
}
}
moveRight() {
if (this.x < SCREEN_WIDTH) {
this.x += this.deltaX;
}
}
Make lots of aliens
At this point, you want to see lots of moving aliens. Let’s add the code to the scene class to construct the aliens. In the scene class, the “create” method will be used to construct all objects. This includes our ship and the aliens. Firstly, we create a special collection object called enemies. We’ll use this collection to track the enemies with the physics system. (this.enemies = this.physics.add.group()) On the next line, we create an Array so that we have a simple way to track our enemies that need updating. In the loop, we’re creating 21 aliens, placing them in random locations, and adding them to our collections. (enemies and enemies2)
class Scene1 extends Phaser.Scene {
...
create() {
this.cursors = this.input.keyboard.createCursorKeys();
this.myShip = new Ship(this, 400, 500);
this.add.existing(this.myShip);
// ======= adding enemies ============
this.enemies = this.physics.add.group();
this.enemies2 = new Array();
let k = 0;
for (k = 0; k < 21; k++) {
let x = Math.random() * 800;
let y = Math.random() * 400;
this.enemy = new Enemy1(this, x, y);
this.add.existing(this.enemy);
this.enemies.add(this.enemy);
this.enemies2.push(this.enemy);
}
}
In order to invoke our update code for all enemies, we need to make one more edit to the scene class. In the “update” method, we need to add a loop to call “update” on all enemies
update() {
// there's more code related to the ship here
let j = 0;
for (j = 0; j < this.enemies2.length; j++) {
let enemy = this.enemies2[j];
enemy.update();
}
}
At this point, we should see our aliens wiggling on the screen. And there’s much rejoicing!
Aliens go boom! Let’s do collision detection
In the laser class that we built in the last post, we need to make a few edits. Check out the code below. In the constructor of the ShipLaser, we set the texture, position, speed, and store the parent scene in “this.scene.” We connect the laser instance to the physics engine using “scene.physics.world.enable.” In the next line, we tell the game framework to check for collisions between this laser and the enemies. When a collision happens, we handle the hit using the “handleHit” function.
In the handle hit function, you’ll notice that the laserSprite and enemySprite have been passed as parameters to the method. In Phaser, you can receive these references so that we can define behaviors associated with both sprites. In this case, we’re just going to destroy the objects.
In this blog post series, I want to unpack building a 2D shooter game using Phaser3.js. Phaser3 provides a robust and fast game framework for early-stage JavaScript developers. In this post, we’ll focus on enabling our ship to fire lasers.
Let’s start by creating a game object to represent a laser. (see code below) We’ll model this object using the ShipLaser class that extends Phaser.GameObjects.Sprite. In general, a class connects data stuff and related functions(or methods) in a nice little package. In this case, the laser has data properties like location(x,y), a texture, speed, and a scene. This code snippet has two methods: constructor and preUpdate.
The constructor method enables us to set up the ShipLaser class. We’ll initialize properties like texture, position, speed, and physics. In Phaser 3, the preUpdate method of a sprite enables us to describe behavior or movement of the sprite. The framework requires that we call “super.preUpdate.” On the next line, we move the sprite upward on the screen by subtracting from the y property.
Let’s make some edits to our Ship class. We’re going to store a reference of the scene. To describe how fast the ship moves over the game space, we initial deltaX and deltaY to 5. In this current design, we’re going to store the list of lasers from the ship in an array. We also need to store some information related to when the last shot was executed.
class Ship extends Phaser.GameObjects.Sprite {
constructor(scene, x , y) {
// ... other setup stuff
this.scene = scene;
this.deltaX = 5;
this.deltaY = 5;
this.lasers = new Array();
this.lastShot = new Date().getTime();
this.shotFrequency = 250;
}
It’s time to shoot stuff! Let’s define a method to fireLasers from the ship. When my kids play this game, they just keep their fingers down on the space bar the whole time. 🙂 By design, we want to control how often the laser gets shot. We start by checking the current time. The quantity of currentTime – lastShot returns the number of milliseconds since the last shot. If this value is greater than 250, we allow the ship to fire.
When we fire, we create an instance of the ShipLaser we defined. Notice that the ship laser will be created with the same scene and location as the ship. Once we have an instance, we add the laser instance to the scene. We finish up by storing the laser in our lasers list and updating the “lastShot” time.
fireLasers() {
var currentTime = new Date().getTime();
if (currentTime - this.lastShot > this.shotFrequency) {
var shipLaser = new ShipLaser(this.scene, this.x, this.y);
this.scene.add.existing(shipLaser);
this.lasers.push(shipLaser);
this.lastShot = currentTime;
}
}
We have to make one more edit to our Ship class to make the lasers function properly. The “preUpdate” javascript function enables us to describe behavior associated with our sprite. The game framework calls this function on every game tick. In the following code snippet, we’re going to remove laser objects that have reached the top of the screen. We start by building an array of lasers to remove from the scene. In the first loop, we search for lasers that have reached the top of the screen. (i.e. lasers[i].y <= 0) In the second loop, we remove the laser objects from the ship and destroy them. If you create game objects, it’s important to clean them up if you’re not using them.
preUpdate(time, delta) {
super.preUpdate(time, delta);
var i = 0;
var j = 0;
var lasersToRemove = new Array();
for (i = 0; i < this.lasers.length; i++) {
if (this.lasers[i].y <= 0) {
lasersToRemove.push(this.lasers[i]);
}
}
for (j = 0; j < lasersToRemove.length; j++) {
var laserIndex = this.lasers.indexOf(lasersToRemove[j]);
this.lasers.splice(laserIndex, 1);
lasersToRemove[j].destroy();
}
}
In the scene1 class, we need to add one more detail. The laser should fire when the user presses the space bar. Let’s edit the update method to fire the lasers.
```javascript
update() {
if (this.cursors.space.isDown) {
this.myShip.fireLasers();
}
```
If you’re interested in reviewing the completed code tutorial, feel free to visit my GitHub tutorial link.
In the next post, we’ll add some alien targets for our game. We’ll see you next time!
If you’re really excited to learn more, I have found the learning from the examples very helpful.
Like many computer enthusiasts, I grew up playing video games on the classic Nintendo entertainment system. Some of my favorite games included Super Mario brothers, Legend of Zelda, Tetris, and Star Force. It’s been fun to share these game classics with my kids. They still find them fun. In this blog post series, I want to unpack building a 2D shooter game using Phaser3.js. Phaser3 provides a robust and fast game framework for early stage JavaScript developers.
From exploring the options in 2D game creation using Javascript, Phaser has grown an impressive community of game makers. Here are a few game samples that you would want to explore.
In this post series, I wanted to collect a few resources, tools, and links to help you get started building a space shooter game with Phaser 3. We’ll be drawing from the inspiration of classic games like Space Invaders.
In terms of JavaScript writing style, we’re going to keep the code samples as simple as possible to express core concepts. If you need to get started with JavaScript, I recommend checking out the free sources at CodeAcademy to start exploring the language. We’ll be drawing inspiration from classic games like Galaga and Star Force. Even though I’m trying to unpack these ideas for early stage JavaScript coders, I also want to provide examples that leverage ES6 coding structures. The Phaser3 documentation does not focus on this style of code organization. In general, I want to explore programming concepts that provide nice encapsulation and readability. We also want to make sure we can extend these coding patterns well.
In this tutorial, we want to encourage you to setup your work environment with Visual Studio code. You can also inspect the tutorial code in the following glitch sample.
In this series, I recommend setting up Visual Studio Code on your computer. It’s a robust tool for web development and works well for JavaScript projects. You can find instructions to install VS Code using this link. I also recommend using the Visual Studio Code Live server extension to make it easier to hot re-load your code changes. Please refer to the following video for details.
Downloading some boilerplate code
To save some time, I have organized a ZIP file with a collection of code and graphics that you can leverage in building your own shooter game. You’re encouraged to play and build with these assets, sounds, and code samples to elaborate on your own game. For this first exercise, we just want to get a ship displayed to the screen and move it around using arrow keys.
Extract the ZIP file to a location on your computer. We’ll call this your working directory. For me, I might store my files in “c:\alienWarGame-tutorial1.”
Let’s explore the contents of this boilerplate code
assets: The game art, sounds, sprite graphics have been created by Kenny Vleugels. You can find his creative commons game art from his website here: https://www.kenney.nl/assets/space-shooter-redux
shooter.js: This JavaScript file will contain our game objects and behavior code.
shooter.html: This HTML file provides a home for our JavaScript game code. (see the code below) Please note that we’re downloading phaser.js (version 3.11) from a content delivery network. In the body of the HTML file, we import our shooter.js. Remember to install “Live server” extension for Visual Studio. You will be able to right click on the code HTML file and select “open with Live server.” This will load the file on a small HTTP server on your computer. All phaser games need to be hosted on a web server.
Space Shooter Tutorial 1
Breaking Down Shooter.js
All Phaser games start with a little bit of configuration. In this “config” object below, we establish a screen size of 800 pixels by 600 pixels. This will be our drawing surface for the game. To help detect if objects bump into each other, we will be leveraging the ‘arcade’ physics engine included in Phaser3.
var SCREEN_WIDTH = 800;
var SCREEN_HEIGHT = 600;
var config = {
type: Phaser.AUTO,
width: SCREEN_WIDTH,
height: SCREEN_HEIGHT,
physics: {
default: 'arcade'
}
};
Ok. Let’s build our Space ship player object. In Phaser 3, they have been working to improve the framework to leverage modern JavaScript features like Es6 classes. The class will help us store the properties of the ship. Properties will include stuff like the location of the ship on the screen, object state, and texture. The class will also include several methods for moving the ship around. In the constructor method, we accept a scene object and location on the screen. (x,y). The call to “super” and “setPosition” helps associate the sprite with the parent scene and location. We call “setTexture” using the parameter of ‘ship’ to associate the ship graphic with the sprite. Finally, we set some variables(deltaX, deltaY) to configure how much the ship will move when we press keys.
In the following method called ‘moveLeft’, we implement the math to move the sprite to the left. Since we’re moving left, we subtract 5 pixels from the current x position. We only execute this code if x is greater than zero. Most of the other movement methods operate in a similar manner.
In the following class, we have to establish a Phaser scene object. It has a few simple tasks. In the “preload” method, need we load the ship sprite graphic from our assets folder.
class Scene1 extends Phaser.Scene {
constructor(config) {
super(config);
}
preload() {
this.load.image('ship', 'assets/SpaceShooterRedux/PNG/playerShip1_orange.png');
}
create() {
this.cursors = this.input.keyboard.createCursorKeys();
this.myShip = new Ship(this, 400, 500);
this.add.existing(this.myShip);
}
update() {
if (this.cursors.left.isDown) {
this.myShip.moveLeft();
}
if (this.cursors.right.isDown) {
this.myShip.moveRight();
}
if (this.cursors.up.isDown) {
this.myShip.moveUp();
}
if (this.cursors.down.isDown) {
this.myShip.moveDown();
}
if (this.cursors.space.isDown) {
// shooting guns goes here
}
}
}
The create method has does additional setup for our scene. We establish a property called cursors that will be used for detecting keyboard input like the arrow keys. We also create a ship instance at (400,500) and add it to the scene.
We now can start moving the ship around using the update method. The if statements in update help us detect the various arrow keys. We call the appropriate method on the ship. In other words, if we press the LEFT button, we should call this.myShip.moveLeft().
update() {
if (this.cursors.left.isDown) {
this.myShip.moveLeft();
}
if (this.cursors.right.isDown) {
this.myShip.moveRight();
}
if (this.cursors.up.isDown) {
this.myShip.moveUp();
}
if (this.cursors.down.isDown) {
this.myShip.moveDown();
}
if (this.cursors.space.isDown) {
// shooting guns goes here
}
}
Here’s the final step, we associate our game configuration information to a new game. We then add our scene.
var game = new Phaser.Game(config);
game.scene.add('scene1', Scene1, true, { x: 400, y: 300 });
If you're really excited to learn more, I have found the learning from the examples very helpful.
Curious about building 2D games with web skills? In this online meetup, we'll explore tools and patterns to use PhaserJs and JavaScript to make engaging 2D games. We'll cover tools to make experiences with our favorite language: TypeScript. We'll also cover some cool updates from the latest release of Angular. Come join us to learn about the latest innovations from our Angular community. Look forward to connecting with like-minded Orlando developers and designers. Hope you can join us! Make sure to bring a friend too!